Quote Originally Posted by eugmac View Post
What are some ways to ensure that you yourself are not displaying any tells? Does a conscious effort need to be made at the table to practice this?
It definitely takes a conscious effort. Unless you're a robot. I've probably learned the most about tells just studying my own tendencies and trying to figure out why I was doing whatever it was. Similar to improving our own fundamental strategy, it takes honesty and self-awareness to study ourselves.

For example, next time you are value-betting, try to be conscious of how exactly you are acting. Where are you looking? How fast are you betting? How are you setting your chips down? Are you moving your body much? Are you sitting up straight or slumped? Are you making eye contact with your opponent or avoiding it? Try to remember all these things and compare them to the next time you're making a significant bluff. What has changed and why?

I think the top-notch players have made very conscious efforts to become unreadable. For me, it takes a very conscious effort.

The saving grace is that most people, by and large, aren't paying attention to this stuff, so nobody should be getting too stressed out about it. If you're playing pretty high, that's when you should be maybe getting worried about it.